Educational Episode 3

Educational Episode 3 : Business Structures for Rural Businesses with Lorna Balfour and Laura Kirkman

With so much change, legislative and otherwise, we’re continuing our series of educational episodes to bring insights, advice and awareness to support your families and businesses. In this series we’ve already looked at IHT and Succession Planning and this episode is about your business structure - what it is, why it matters, what options you’ve got and how it supports good succession planning. M

Key Takeaways you can expect from tuning in: -

• Your business structure shapes everything. From ownership and decision-making to profit distribution, risk exposure, and how easily the business can be sold or passed on.
• There’s no one-size-fits-all approach – sole traders, partnerships, LLPs, and limited companies each offer different balances of simplicity, tax treatment, liability protection, and succession flexibility.
• Risk and diversification should drive structure decisions – higher-risk or non-core activities are often best separated into their own legal entities to protect the wider business.
• Good agreements and forward planning are essential – having clear, up-to-date written agreements in place can prevent disputes, support continuity, and save significant stress when circumstances change.

With case studies to bring this to life, this is a must listen for every rural business whatever stage you are at!

The Award Winning Women in Wellies Podcast is sponsored by Scottish Law firm, Gillespie Macandrew, advising on all areas of land & rural business, private client, energy and real estate.

Connect with Lorna, Laura and Gillespie Macandrew on social media : LinkedIn - Lorna Balfour / Laura Kirkman / Gillespie Macandrew LLP \\ Instagram - @Gillespiemacandrewllp

Episode Recorded on Friday 20th February 2026.

All views expressed are our own.

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